2.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time

3.
High King of Ireland
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The High Kings of Ireland were sometimes historical and sometimes legendary figures who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over the whole of Ireland. Medieval and early modern Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings, ruling from the Hill of Tara over a hierarchy of lesser kings, stretching back thousands of years. The concept of kingship is first articulated in the 7th century, but only became a political reality in the Viking Age. Early Irish kingship was sacred in character, in the early narrative literature a king is a king because he marries the sovereignty goddess, is free from blemish, enforces symbolic buada and avoids symbolic geasa. According to 7th and 8th century law tracts, a hierarchy of kingship and clientship progressed from the rí tuaithe through the ruiri to a rí ruirech. Each king ruled directly only within the bounds of his own petty kingdom and was responsible for ensuring good government by exercising fír flaithemon. His responsibilities included convening its óenach, collecting taxes, building works, external relations, defence, emergency legislation, law enforcement. The lands in a petty kingdom were held allodially by various fine of freemen, the king occupied the apex of a pyramid of clientship within the petty kingdom. This pyramid progressed from the population at its base up to the heads of noble fine held in immediate clientship by the king. Thus the king was drawn from the dominant fine within the cenél, the kings of the Ulster Cycle are kings in this sacred sense, but it is clear that the old concept of kingship coexisted alongside Christianity for several generations. Diarmait mac Cerbaill, king of Tara in the middle of the 6th century, diarmait died at the hands of Áed Dub mac Suibni, some accounts from the following century state that he died by the mythic Threefold death appropriate to a sacral king. Adomnáns Life tells how Saint Columba forecast the same death for Áed Dub, a second sign that sacred kingship did not disappear with the arrival of Christianity is the supposed lawsuit between Congal Cáech, king of the Ulaid, and Domnall mac Áedo. Congal was supposedly blinded in one eye by Domnalls bees, from whence his byname Cáech, the business of Irish succession is rather complicated because of the nature of kingship in Ireland before the Norman take-over of 1171. Ireland was divided into a multiplicity of kingdoms, with some kings owing allegiance to others from time to time, Kings were often succeeded by their sons, but often other branches of the dynasty took a turn—whether by agreement or by force of arms is rarely clear. Unfortunately the king-lists and other sources reveal little about how. To add to the uncertainty, genealogies were often edited many generations later to improve an ancestors standing within a kingdom, the uncertain practices in local kingship cause similar problems when interpreting the succession to the high kingship. The High King of Ireland was essentially a ceremonial, pseudo-federal overlord, in the case of the southern branch of the Uí Neill, this would have been the Kingdom of Meath. High Kings from the northern branch ruled various kingdoms in what became the province of Ulster

4.
Domnall Ua Lochlainn
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Domhnall Ua Lochlainn, also known as Domhnall Mac Lochlainn, claimed to be High King of Ireland. Later, rival kings produced differing definitions, domnalls legal men, for example, claimed that a High King with opposition was the king of a province who could lead his army throughout Ireland without defeat, and this Domnall could do. Regardless of legal fictions, the first king to construct something resembling an overlordship of Ireland after the death of Máel Sechnaill was Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó of the Uí Cheinnselaig. Only called King of Leinster and the Foreigners in his obituary, Diarmait was more than this and his son Murchad ruled Dublin, Toirdelbach Ua Briain in Munster was his client, and Niall mac Eochada of Ulster was his ally. Diarmaits career ended with his death in battle, attempting to subjugate the heirs of Máel Sechnaill, diarmaits position was quickly taken by his former puppet Toirdelbach Ua Briain. Ua Briain installed his son, Muirchertach in Dublin, and campaigned in Ulster, in Leinster and Connacht he pursued a policy of setting rival families against each other. Domnall Ua Lochlainn, on his coming to power in 1084, was left undisturbed by Ua Briain, at his death, even the partisan northern annals recognised Toirdelbach Ua Briain as king of Ireland. Domnall was the son of a certain Artgar son of Lochlann, the reality appears to be subtly different as demonstrated by the records in the Book of Leinster. Nonetheless, the Meic Lochlainn were members of the Cenél nEógain branch of the Uí Néill, under Domnall, the Cenél nEógain were again a significant force in Irish politics. Domnall became king of Ailech in 1083 and began his reign in traditional fashion, the Annals of Ulster state that Domnall carried off a great prey of cattle and gave stipends from that prey to the men of Fernmag. However, Muirchertach Ua Briain the new king of Munster, moved to oppose the rule of Meic Lochlainn between 1101 and 1119

5.
1101 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1101 in Ireland. Muirchertach Ua Briain of the Dál gCais proclaims himself High King of Ireland, at the Synod of Cashel, Muirchertach Ua Briain grants Cashel to the church as the seat of a metropolitan bishop. Muirchertach Ua Briain destroys the ringfort at Grianan of Aileach, sailors from overseas raid Scattery Island. Gillafin mac Coulahan, King of Síol Anmchadha, is killed and succeeded by his predecessors son, gilla na Naemh Ua Dunabhra, Chief Poet of Connacht

7.
1139 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1139 in Ireland. Early - Malachy, Bishop of Down, begins his first journey to Rome, via Scotland, England and he petitions Pope Innocent II for pallia for the Sees of Armagh and Cashel, and is appointed native legate for Ireland. Malachy gives the previously Benedictine St. Marys Abbey, Dublin, course of River Suck diverted by Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht

8.
1152 in Ireland
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Events from the year 1152 in Ireland. Synod of Kells-Mellifont results in a church organisation with four metropolitans and 36 sees. The Archdiocese of Dublin, recognised as a province in by the Synod of Kells. Diarmaid mac Murchadha elopes with Devorgill, cloyne was recognised as a diocese at the Synod of Kells